The idea of this meal plan is for you to focus on enjoying your food and having meals prepped for you that you know are well-balanced so you don’t have to worry about counting calories. I find calorie counting to be tedious and I get overly obsessive so I like to choose meals that are naturally healthy and nutritious to add into my meal preps like the recipes I’ve chosen for you today.

This plan was developed by nutritionist Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, to allow vegetarians to have a burger every once in awhile. There is no specific weight-loss claim, but the guidelines recommend around 1,500 calories per day, so there’s a good chance you’ll lose weight. Recipes are available online and in Blatner’s book. Vegetarian diets have been linked with reduced risk for diseases such as diabetes and heart troubles, but you have to make smart food choices to avoid nutrient deficiencies. Learn about the healthy diet plan nutritionists recommend for weight loss.
The sad truth is that conventional ideas – eat less, run more – do not work long term. Counting calories, exercising for hours every day and trying to ignore your hunger? That’s needless suffering and it wastes your time and precious willpower. It’s weight loss for masochists. Eventually almost everyone gives up. That’s why we have an obesity epidemic. Fortunately there’s a better way.
While there are probably plenty of pre-made bean and veggie soup options that just need a few minutes to heat through on the stovetop, making your own soup is really easy—and a great idea for your health. Homemade soups are much lower in sodium – about 100 milligrams or less per 2-cup serving. By contrast, 2 cups of many canned soups contain a blood-pressure-busting 1,200 milligrams or more, a worrisome amount considering that health experts recommend consuming no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium for the entire day. This is also a great way to use up all those leftover vegetables in your crisper—pretty much anything works in this soup.
If you haven't lost any weight after the first week, it may be time to troubleshoot. In addition to following an exercise program, Juge's first line of defense is upping your cardio. Instead of one cardio session per day, he recommends doing 45 minutes of cardio in the morning on an empty stomach. Then add a second 30-minute session in the late afternoon or evening.
Sure, you can lose weight quickly. There are plenty of fad diets that work to shed pounds rapidly -- while leaving you feeling hungry and deprived. But what good is losing weight only to regain it? To keep pounds off permanently, it's best to lose weight slowly. And many experts say you can do that without going on a "diet." Instead, the key is making simple tweaks to your lifestyle.
So as tedious as this one step might seem, it is an important step for both weight loss and maintenance later on and it holds everything together. Having a meal plan helps you manage plateaus while keeping you motivated. In the long run you’ve studied for your new healthy lifestyle and for your new figure. It makes it easier to maintain your weight loss diet when you have done the studying. So don’t skip this step, you’re studying for the most important test of your life… your health.

If you like eating meat and want to lose weight, you might be tempted to try this recent extreme diet fad that proponents have made some pretty outrageous claims about. One: that eating nothing but meat can cure you of autoimmune diseases. The problem is that there’s no good research to support that notion, or any other health claim, for that matter. Indeed, omitting foods known to be good for you — fruits and veggies among them — can lead to a bunch of unwanted side effects, including constipation and potentially dangerous nutrient deficiencies. Still, since you’re cutting out so many food groups, there’s a decent chance you’ll lose weight, experts say. Regardless of any possible benefits you might see, this restrictive approach is definitely one you’ll want to ask your doc about before you even consider diving in.

Obviously, it’s still possible to lose weight on any diet – just eat fewer calories than you burn, right? The problem with this simplistic advice is that it ignores the elephant in the room: Hunger. Most people don’t like to “just eat less”, i.e. being hungry forever. That’s dieting for masochists. Sooner or later, a normal person will give up and eat, hence the prevalence of “yo-yo dieting”.
Preheat oven to 400°. Coat a baking sheet and 1 (3-ounce) chicken breast with cooking spray; bake 30 minutes or until done. Chop 1 small potato into 1-inch cubes; toss with 2 cups broccoli spears, 2 teaspoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Roast 30 minutes. Mix vegetables with 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar; serve with chicken.

Aside from offering customizable diet plans, some companies offer consultants and diet experts for developing personalized diet programs for their clients. These experts help formulate diet plans or recommend food substitutes for people with health conditions such as diabetes for example. They could also help you come up with a diet program that is best suited for your budget.

Lastly, to help you stay motivated I recommend you log your weight loss results so that you can gather an average. You will always have good weeks and bad weeks, but it’s the average that counts. Every weigh in (only weigh in once per week) write the pounds lost on your calendar. At the end of 8 weeks add up all the weight loss pounds and divide by 8 for your 8 week average. This will help you stay motivated and see your results. Anytime you have a bad week, think of your weight loss average and know this is all just part of the process.
Companies who offer diet plans should also include interactive and tracking tools for helping clients keep track of their progress. This enables clients to monitor their daily progress and assess the overall success of the diet plan. Tracking tools help clients monitor activities, exercises and calorie intake. Some tools also have reporting features that come with graphs to help individuals get a more detailed look. Some companies also have mobile apps that can monitor your progress and even sync with other fitness tracking devices.
Fiola Sowemimo, MD, board-certified in internal and bariatric medicine, says that the quality and quantity of food you eat is only half of the weight loss equation. “Regardless of which diet you choose, when you eat is important too,” Dr. Sowemimo says. Starving during the day and ignoring hunger could lead to bingeing later, she says. Plus, Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, RD, adds that the peaks and valleys of hunger throughout the day could make it more difficult to manage cravings. Eating regular meals at regular times could actually help normalize your metabolism, according to Dr. Bazilian.
Becky Duffett is a contributing nutrition editor for Fitbit and a lifestyle writer with a passion for eating well. A former Williams-Sonoma cookbook editor and graduate of San Francisco Cooking School, she’s edited dozens of cookbooks and countless recipes. City living has turned her into a spin addict—but she’d still rather be riding a horse. She lives in the cutest neighborhood in San Francisco, spending weekends at the farmers’ market, trying to read at the bakery, and roasting big dinners for friends.